She looked toward Nathaniel as though expecting him to supply a safer answer.
He did not.
The clerk waited with his pen poised.
Catherine eventually said Daniel was an enslaved man living under her authority and could not safely refuse her demands.
The words sounded unfamiliar in her mouth.
They were also the first accurate description she had offered.
She tried to explain that she had been lonely and frightened of Richard.
The attorney asked whether loneliness gave her the right to threaten another person.
Catherine answered that it did not.
He asked whether she had threatened to accuse Daniel of a crime if he spoke.
She said yes.
He asked whether she understood that such an accusation could have resulted in Daniel’s death.
Catherine stared at the desk and whispered that she did.
Nathaniel did not congratulate her for answering.
He knew the truth had arrived only after the witnesses, documents, and public questions made further denial difficult.
Still, the statement mattered.
It removed one more false story from the record and protected Daniel against the accusation Catherine had used to control him.
The attorney asked why Catherine wanted Eleanor recovered.
She said she feared Richard would kill the child to preserve his reputation.
He asked whether she planned to raise Eleanor openly if the child returned.
Catherine admitted she had no such plan.
She wanted the child hidden where she could occasionally receive news.
Nathaniel told her that a secret arrangement designed around her comfort was not the same as a safe future for Eleanor.
Catherine had no answer.
Richard had planned to leave Virginia before the inquiry reached his estate.
He ordered a carriage prepared and instructed his steward to pack valuable documents.
He intended to travel to a distant property where his acquaintances would ask fewer questions.
The plan changed when his banker refused to advance the money he requested.
The banker had seen notices of disputed accounts and wanted an explanation before releasing additional funds.
Richard stormed through the house accusing servants of disloyalty.
He discovered that Catherine had met with a lawyer and demanded to know what she had said.
She answered that she had told the truth about Eleanor’s birth.
Richard raised his hand as though to strike her, then stopped when Nathaniel entered with two witnesses.
The witnesses did not carry weapons.
Their presence was enough to prevent Richard from claiming the exchange had occurred in private.
Nathaniel informed his cousin that copies of the corrected birth record and Graves’s orders had been placed with independent attorneys.
